Cost containment practices in medicine have stretched staffing to a point where fewer nursing professionals are managing more patients. Indeed, tasks that were once performed by licensed professionals are now performed by less qualified staff. In many instances, patients whose mentation is compromised may not be able to participate fully in monitoring the care they receive in the hospital. This problem is exacerbated when patients are transferred to different floors within a facility or between facilities (e.g., from acute to long term care).
For example, assume for didactic purposes, that a patient has suffered brain damage as a result of a cardiac arrest. As part of treatment, a defibrillating pacemaker is implanted in the patient by an acute care facility. The nursing staff at the acute care hospital clearly notes in the patient's chart the necessity to keep the wound dry for five days. When the patient is transferred to a long-term care facility, the nursing staff does not notice the instructions contained in the patient's chart to keep the wound dry for five days, and immediately wants to give him a shower, which would make the wound wet, and create a severe risk of a fatal infection. As the patient was suffering from short-term memory loss, he is not able to remind the nursing staff at the new hospital of the need to keep the wound dry. Assuming there is no other means of warning the nursing staff, the patient is presented with a high risk of serious infection.
The prior art contains adhesive bandages with text markings or other indicia; however, such text markings are generally promotional in nature, such as providing the name and logo of a hospital. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,553 teaches an adhesive bandage including a soft three-dimensional figure attached to the outer surface to engage a young child. U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,530 issued to Hassell provides an adhesive strip bandage with markings indicating a recommended direction for removal of the bandage to minimize the chance of reopening a flap wound; however, Hassell does not teach or suggest a bandage that would avoid the problems discussed above. While these bandages fulfill their respective objectives, they do not disclose or suggest a bandage having text markings or other indicia providing care instructions for a wound.
In light of the foregoing, a need in the art exists for adhesive bandages and surgical dressings that indicate care instructions to help avert the type of problems discussed above. The present invention substantially fulfills this need.